The symbolic landscapes of the Crown in New Brunswick

Keywords: political geography, settler colonialism, Crown-Indigenous relations
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Sunday
Session Start / End Time: 2/27/2022 03:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/27/2022 05:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 29

Abstract

This paper examines the symbolic landscape of the Crown in New Brunswick and how places such as Government House, the official residence of the province’s lieutenant governor, function to uphold settler colonialism. Government House continues to be central to the province’s understanding of itself and how it is politically and societally arranged.
New Brunswick’s relationship with First Nations is fundamentally about land. The use of these lands is governed by the Peace and Friendship Treaties that outline the shared obligations and responsibilities of the Crown and of the Wolastoqey and Mi’gmaw nations. These treaties did not cede any land or sovereignty to the Crown, yet the latter has sought to exert and exercise exclusive and absolute sovereignty since the 18th century.
Government House's place in the provincial political landscape is defined by its supposed political neutrality. However, the Crown that it represents is not a politically neutral concept: it is a land claim that actively contests Indigenous sovereignty (Wood and Rossiter 2020). Claims of neutrality erase the foundational tensions in the relationship between the Crown and the Wolastoqiyik and Mi’gmaq. This contest is symbolically reproduced in Government House, which stands as a physical reminder of the province’s settler colonial foundations. Yet its inhabitants have consistently identified improving the treaty relationship as a priority for the viceregal position. In this light, this paper also explores the potential role of places like Government House in reconciliatory processes as Indigenous communities and the settler state rethink how they practice the contemporary treaty relationship.